Adding with Base Ten Blocks

After spending our first week of math workshop playing games and figuring out puzzles, I wanted to spend this week using base ten blocks.  Yesterday in class, we used base ten blocks to demonstrate our understanding of regrouping in addition.  Most kids know to start by adding the ones place, and sometimes you have to "carry the one."  But it's not really a "one," is it?  It's really a ten.  And when kids add the tens place, they often times have to "carry the one" over to the hundreds place.  But it's not really a "one" - it's really a hundred.  The base ten blocks gave us a concrete understanding of this concept.  I'm always pushing for kids to understand the WHY behind math.  I want us to go beyond the procedures and steps and really develop a conceptual understanding of how numbers work.  Below are some pictures of our kids at work. 

Adding with base ten blocks

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